Lowcountry Headlines

Weather and Jetties a big cause of erosion on Folly Beach

About every 8-years for the next 50-years some type of renourishment will happen on Folly.

The Current effort will pump one 1.5 million cubic feet of sand from the ocean floor, that is about 60,000 dump trucks full, to help keep the ocean waves at a safe distance.

So why the ongoing need for renourishment on Folly? The weather is certainly a big cause of erosion but there is something else miles out into Charleston Harbor. The Army Corps Project Manager David Warren offered some detail.

"It's a federal responsibility because of the Jetties and the erosion has been attributed to the Jetties, so we have periodic renourishment programs set up with the city of Folly Beach."

The jetties are a seam rocks above the waterline that were built years ago to give the area a single shipping lane has taken sand from areas like Folly Beach. Now the Army Corps of Engineers will take on the issue, hiring a company from Illinois to do the work at the cost of 30 point seven million dollars